We are not corrupt, angry councillors tell tribunal judges

WE’RE not corrupt — that was the strong message Cork politicians sent to the Flood Tribunal yesterday.

Angry Cork councillors took grave exception to one of the tribunal judges declaring last week that planning irregularities were common in all local authorities.

The judge said to one witness: “were you not aware that all councils were at it?” But there was no way Cork County Councillors were going to take this criticism and they passed a motion yesterday calling on the Flood Tribunal judges to stop making comments of this nature. Fianna Fáil Cllr Vivian O’Callaghan said it was totally inappropriate for the Flood Tribunal judge to say he knew what was going on throughout the country.

“If there was a problem with planning in North County Dublin it does not mean to say that this council did the same,” Cllr O’Callaghan said.

Cork County Council members came under intense pressure from developers to extend the city to the west when drafting the County Development Plan. But they resisted all this pressure and decided to extend the city to the east and took 60 meetings before agreeing on the final draft of the plan, Cllr O’Callaghan said.

Cork County Mayor Paula Desmond said there was no more transparent method of decision making than the agreement of the latest Cork County Development Plan.

“There is no corruption in Cork County Council and members of the judiciary should not be fuelling the cynicism already in the public’s mind,” she added. Independent Cllr Noel Collins was the only member not to support the motion.

Fine Gael’s PJ Sheehan said he had been a councillor for 35 years and he knew of no planning irregularities.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Donal O’Rourke said the tabloid approach of the tribunal did nothing for its credibility because the statement was totally unsubstantiated.

Fine Gael Cllr Peter Kelly said that if the members of the Flood Tribunal said all councils were corrupt in a court they would be found in contempt if they could not produce evidence. “Yet a judge sitting on a tribunal made the remark,” he said.

Fine Gael Cllr Tomás Ryan said Cork councillors were not driven by big builders and he personally voted against one major development in his own region.